Best of Seven
by peroxidepest17
Summary: In a stunning 7 round title match, Ogata emerges with the win. Saeki doesn’t exactly lose either, though.


**Title:** Best of Seven  
**Universe:** Hikaru no Go  
**Theme/Topic:** SaekixOgata crack.  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Character/Pairing/s:** Lightly SaekixOgata (guest appearance by Touya Meijin)  
**Warnings/Spoilers:** No real spoilers; kind of future-y though.  
**Word Count:** 1,546  
**Summary:** In a stunning 7 round title match, Ogata emerges with the win. Saeki doesn't exactly lose either, though.  
**Dedication:** juin's REALLY LATE holiday request fic.  
**A/N:** God I have never written for this series; too many technicalities to remember. SORRY IF I SCREWED UP. SORRY IF IT IS RIDICULOUSLY OOC. IT HAS SERIOUSLY BEEN MANY, MANY YEARS.  
**Disclaimer:** Not mine, unfortunately.  
**Distribution:** Just lemme know.

* * *

**1.**

In match one, Ogata's only outstanding impression of his opponent is that young people nowadays have no manners.

Saeki Koji smiles back at him guilelessly and breezes through his first ever title match game without really breaking a sweat.

He ends up losing horribly to Ogata as expected, but when the two of them step out of the hotel lobby at the end of the night, the look on Saeki's face seems to indicate that he feels otherwise. It kind of pisses Ogata off.

He decides to crush the insolent brat in four straight to teach him a proper lesson.

**2.**

In match two the following month, Ogata thinks that Saeki's smile when he is ahead is even more infuriating than it was when he is behind, even though now it is somewhat justified when before, it clearly wasn't.

The match is difficult and drawn out and they don't end up finishing before the allotted time is up; Ogata takes comfort in getting the last move, sealing it away in the envelope, and hoping the smiling idiot will be unable to sleep because he's too busy thinking about all the possibilities of what the last turn is and how to counter it come the next time they meet.

As they ride the elevator down to the ground floor of the hotel, Ogata thinks that maybe Saeki is not nearly as anxious as he ought to be.

His theory is confirmed when Saeki grins at Ogata and says, "Say, you want to go for drinks or something?" as he leans casually against the back wall of the lift.

Ogata stares.

"My treat."

The elevator dings then, and the doors slide open. Ogata frowns. "No."

He walks out without a backwards glance, but for some reason, is more than 99 sure Saeki is laughing at him even though he can't actually _see_ the idiot doing it.

Upon resuming game two, Ogata ends up losing the match in a point count, and as he is hating himself on the way to his car, Saeki asks if he wants to go out_again_.

"No!" Ogata snaps, and starts his engine. He speeds off into the night, glaring at Saeki's shrinking form in the rearview mirror.

He tells himself that he'll get the next three in a row and be done with this foolishness once and for all.

**3.**

In game three he finds himself smirking a little as his last move gives him a decisive lead over his upstart opponent; he can't help but think that this is more like it.

The spiky-haired brat sitting across from him leans back a little and regards the board, brow furrowed thoughtfully. "Makemashita!" he declares after a beat, and rightfully so.

As they bow to each other, Saeki grins at Ogata out of view of the camera and mouths, "drinks on you tonight."

Ogata manages to cover up his sputtering by pretending to cough.

**4.**

In a confident rush of pure malice, Ogata finds the opportunity to crush Saeki early on in game four and does so without remorse. It seems like things are finally going the way they should have from the very beginning.

"Ahh, that was a good match!" Saeki declares later, as they ride the elevator to the ground floor together. He stretches and grins lopsidedly at Ogata. "So, drinks tonight? Or maybe dinner?"

Ogata's good mood is killed by Saeki's blasé one; he thinks that he is on the brink of turning around and throttling the moron. Any person in their right mind would have gotten the hint by now, right? Shouldn't he be off sulking and self-berating for his loss tonight? Ogata knows he would be if he'd (somehow) lost to this idiot again.

But Saeki isn't sulking or self-berating, he just continues to think out loud, drumming his fingers against the side of his neck absently. "Mmm, oden sounds good."

"What is _wrong_ with you?" Ogata demands suddenly, when he can't take it anymore. It is somewhere around floor four.

A beat.

"Well," Saeki begins after a second, "I guess I'm hungry."

The doors ding and open on floor one and Ogata snarls, wordlessly storming out of the elevator feeling foolish despite his earlier victory.

He tells himself one more. He only needs one more.

**5.**

Ogata attributes game five's loss the following month purely to over-confidence on his part because he refuses to acknowledge that someone as laid-back and moronic as Saeki Koji actually has the ability to beat him in a serious game of Go.

The minute they hit the elevators after the match is done, Ogata whirls on the younger man and declares, "I am not going anywhere to get anything with you tonight!"

Saeki blinks. "So…does that mean _I'm_ not going anywhere to get anything with_ you_ tonight too?"

Ogata has a headache. "That's the same thing, you nitwit."

Saeki laughs. "Actually, it's very different."

Thankfully, the elevator doors chime as they reach the first floor; Ogata whirls and marches out.

He can't believe someone as laid-back and moronic as Saeki Koji had actually just beat him in a serious game of Go.

**6.**

Hours before game six is scheduled to start, Ogata meets with Touya Meijin for a cup of coffee and some much-needed self reflection.

"I don't know why I didn't notice his strategy here earlier," Ogata murmurs to himself with a certain degree of self-loathing. "It was so elementary."

Touya Meijin looks at the kifu and after a moment, actually laughs at Ogata. "It looks like you lost before the game even started, Seiji. How unlike you."

Ogata sighs. "Yes, well. There is something singularly _infuriating_ about that brat that seems to throw me off," he spits. Don't get him wrong, it's not that he's making an excuse for his loss. But honestly, Ogata has never wanted to punch someone in the face so badly before the beginning of this whole sordid ordeal. "And on top of his blatant disregard for good manners _during_ the games, his behavior _after_ the matches is singularly unacceptable as well," he feels the need to add, despite how petulant it sounds in context.

Touya arches a skeptical eyebrow. "Is that so?"

"He keeps asking me to go _drinking_ with him."

A moment.

Then Touya just nods sympathetically (or not really; he's a hard man to read). "Oh, how horrible for you, Seiji."

Ogata scowls. "It's the _way_ he says it, I assure you."

Touya murmurs thoughtfully. "Mmm, yes of course."

"Well, regardless, I'll crush him tonight and be done with it," Ogata declares darkly, leaning back in his chair. "This ridiculousness has gone on long enough and he needs to be put in his place." Pause. Cough. "I don't suppose you'd have any words of advice for a former student before a big match."

Touya's brow furrows at the unexpected (uncharacteristic) inquiry. "Well," he begins after a moment, sagely, "I suppose my advice to you on this matter would have to be that you let him take you out for that drink tonight. Regardless of how the match turns out."

Ogata gapes. "Excuse me?"

Touya smiles a little, returning the kifu to his former student with a fatherly pat on the shoulder. "From the looks of this, it seems like you _need _a stiff one."

* * *

When Ogata ends up losing game six later that night, he tells himself it is because the world—including Touya Meijin—has suddenly gone crazy.

On the way back to his car after the game, he opts to take the stairs instead of the elevator.

**7.**

When Ogata can't sleep because his horrible playing from earlier is haunting the backs of his eyelids whenever he tries, he scowls, sits up, and calls Morishita Shigeo despite the fact that is the middle of the night and he is very close to being officially mortified.

"Ogata? What is it?" the sleepy Go teacher murmurs, trying not to sound annoyed at the late night interruption from one of his old _rival's_ former students.

Ogata surprises himself with how composed he is when he calmly asks Morishita-sensei for Saeki's phone number.

* * *

In the seventh and final game of their match, Ogata forgets himself in a moment of pure, unadulterated passion when he slams his final piece into play and crushes all of Saeki's hopes for a best four-out-of-seven title victory. He grins triumphantly, and the camera sees every inch of it.

Saeki laughs back. "Makemashita," he says, and they bow to one another.

With his victory in hand, all is officially right with the world again as far as Ogata is concerned, and as added bonus, Saeki is even blessedly silent as they ride the elevator together to the ground floor.

When Ogata climbs into his convertible and starts the engine moments later, he's in such a good mood that he doesn't even twitch (too much) when the passenger side door opens as well.

Saeki slides into the seat next to him and buckles up.

"So," he begins, "Ramen tonight?"

Ogata snorts. "Yakiniku. Your treat."

Saeki chuckles. "Sure."

That night, Ogata Seiji comes out of his epic seven match ordeal against hot newcomer Saeki Koji as the unquestionable, inevitable winner.

Even if the idiotic smile on Saeki's face seems to suggest otherwise.

**END**


End file.
